Author Archive for taro

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Genuine Old School

Cruised by the new Teddy’s Bigger Burgers on Kapiolani for the little car show that Scat was in. Half the parking lot occupied by a small collection of classic American steel and a gaggle of VW Bugs. A couple of Imapalas done contemporary bagged style, a bunch of fairly typical Chevy and Fords.

Looks like Dave’s buddy got into a classic Camaro?

Continue reading ‘Genuine Old School’

Germ factories

Uh oh, boarding, we are surrounded by babies and kids. Good thing not planning to sleep!

AKkkkkkk

Brrr it’s cold, 3F right now this Sunday morning. Going to participate in a Road Rally before we head out. Not sure how much will like it, but guess we’ll try it out.
The RallyCross was a blast! There was only a few inches of snow on ground, but it made for me trying to learn to drive the WRX I was in a total challenge. Just call me Mr. Donut! In fun runs when I jumped into a Civic I was much more at home. Posted times 30 seconds faster, doughnuts take lots of time to make nice, you know.

Moosecross

Having breakfast. We helped set up the rallycross course yesterday afternoon on the snow covered Alaska fairground field. Complete with moose tracks. It’s cold. 15F. Thankfully Palmer was a reputation for strong winds, but it is calm today. And shaping up to be sunny!

Furries

Yesterday (Thursday) kicked off with a massive breakfast with our hosts at Gwenies in Anchorage. Hot cakes and reindeer sausage for me. I can say Rudolf was tasty, it was like Portuguese sausage. It was a bit odd that when we finished, it was still dark at 8:00.
Cruise at our main hosts 4,000 sq-ft home for a while. Full on auto racing memorabilia house hold. Quite cool. More cars than I have, but they have the space! Continue reading ‘Furries’

Beer is good – Alaskan amber

Pours medium amber, medium head. Clean, crisp, nice easy nut and roast. Could be the vacation thing, but this is a nice beer.
3 out 4 frosty monkeys.

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White north

Touchdown Anchorage. Layer if snow on sides of Tarmac. Temp below freezing. No active precip.

AK

Boarding flight to AK. Sorry, too early for boarding. Going up to drive in the snow instead!

Two Yeti, One Ride

Sunday October 27, Chris was able to free up a couple hours and new bike fever had bit me so I was itching for a ride. Weather was calling for a flash flood watch, but there was no active rain at the moment. We decided to chance a quickie and go to Maunawili Ditch. Late morning and it was just Chris and I at Waimanalo. Skies were looking grim, but we unloaded and headed onto double track climb. A gentle rain had started and we decided not to go into the Ditch Trail, we knew how mucky it gets when wet. As we passed the Ditch Trail entrance we passed two riders coming out. The rain was gradually increasing. The two riders passed us as we took a break near Jackson Chameleon hill. By the time we reached the open junction area the rain was going at a good pace, this didn’t look like a passing shower. Continue reading ‘Two Yeti, One Ride’

Rack Em Up!

So with our recent mountain bike revival where we’ve actually been riding those contraptions again, I’ve been transporting my bike by taking off both wheels and cramming it into the back of the FR-S. To it’s credit it fits without too much finagling. It’s still annoying, scuffs the interior, and woe be the day when I get poopy tire. So I started working on the external bike rack, there’s already been people who’ve done it. The one that I was going to try for is to use the large threaded holes in the bumper that normally is for the two loop. The FR-S fortunately has two, which you then make something to thread two rods into. Then any typical roof rack mount should work. People have gone as far as having machine shops machine something out of stainless rod. The other method was to go get a pair of the OEM tow loops, cut off the loop, then weld on a tube/pipe. I investigated that. Toyota parts wants over $35 per, and they were not in stock. So I ran around to various shops in Mapunapuna. Industrial Hardware had the big arse metric bolts that match, 16mmx1.5. I bought a pair of the longest ones they had for $11 the pair. Then went across the street to Moos Machine Works to look for tube. They had nothing that would fit the bolts. Back across to Hardware Hawaii where some 3/4″ conduit happen to fit. I wasn’t going to trust this to be strong enough, but bought some for mock up work.

So first thing to do was to chop off the heads. Few minutes with the grinder and cutoff wheel took care of that. Threading it into the bumper immediately reveals that it’s too short. The actual threads are recessed far behind the bumper/ There is a metal face right behind the plastic, but the actual frame as way back there. So if I tried to attach a tube to the bolt it would have to be small enough to fit inside this outer hole, which would be not much more than the 3/4″. Hmm. I proceeded to fit up the 3/4 conduit the test fit everything.

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